Washington Capitals fans probably look at nice North American debuts such as Vladimir Tarasenko‘s with the St. Louis Blues and wonder: “When will Evgeny Kuznetsov – our tantalizing young Russian forward – emerge?”

Caps GM George McPhee joined ESPN 980 on Wednesday and relayed the mixed news: he’s unlikely to debut with Washington until after the KHL’s 2013-14 season ends. In fact, he might not play for the Caps until 2014-15.

“We’re pretty confident he’ll be here next year,” McPhee said. “There’s a chance we could see him this season, but he’s under contract now. Maybe when his season ends in Russia (their season ends a lot earlier) we could see him.”

“… Hopefully we’ll see him sooner than later, but it won’t be in the early part of our season.”

McPhee said he understands Kuznetsov’s decision to take a lot of money and stay closer to home, even if he wasn’t pleased with the deal he signed after being drafted to play two more years by Traktor Chelyabinsk.

He also believes the 21-year-old’s been paid in a rather … interesting way.

“He’s 20-years-old, they gave him ten million dollars to play for two more seasons,” McPhee said. “It’s a 13-percent tax rate over there and even with that, most of the money is under the table. It’s probably no tax. He’s playing in his hometown. He grew up there. He’s the face of the league over there so I understand how that works.”

So far, this situation seems like a cautionary tale for teams gambling with “The Russian factor.”

Still, McPhee seems optimistic it will work out, although he’s worried expectations will continue to swell.

” … I don’t want to hype the kid too much, then it’s harder when he gets here, but I think he’s a real good player and when he gets here we’ll see what he can do for us,” McPhee said.